In 2022 I left a studio of forty people to work on my own from a small room in Lisbon. I expected to miss the big projects. I didn’t expect to miss the hallway, the casual “what do you think of this?” that happens a dozen times a day when you share a floor with other designers.

Borrow a team

The fix was not a coworking desk. It was a short list of people I trust, each with a different eye: a photographer, a type designer, a strategist who hates everything at first. I send them work in progress and pay them for an hour of honest feedback. It is the best money I spend each month.

Make the week visible

Clients can’t see me working, so I show them. Every Friday they get a short email with what moved, what is blocked and what happens next. It takes twenty minutes to write and it has replaced most status calls. Nobody asked for it at the start. Now they would complain if it stopped.

Protect the slow mornings

My best work happens before eleven, so meetings start after lunch. It sounds precious, but when you work alone nobody else will defend your attention. Sketching, reading and the occasional Lab experiment all live in those mornings.

Working alone is not the same as working in isolation. It just means you have to build the studio around you on purpose.